Primary Sources and Differentiated Instruction
By Dr. Paul Moessinger, Ph.D.
Waynesburg University
When I first began my teaching career many years ago, I used a filmstrip which was
developed at Carnegie Mellon University in their Social Studies curriculum project.
The filmstrip was specifically developed without sound as a w ay to involve students
who were not good r eaders. The purpose was to have students respond to the
pictures and describe what they observed as they viewed the slides. I used the
material in a ma instream World Cultures class of tenth graders
at Langley High
School in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
To my amazement some of the poorer perf orming students who rarely responded in
class were qui te willing to ans wer questions as to w hat they saw in the pi ctures.
They were quite able t o make inferences and draw conclusions based upon viewing
the material on the scr een that they would never either be able or willing to try b y
just reading text on a page.
In the 1960’s we were not nearly as visually conscious as we are today. Certainly
reading is fundamental. Without an extensive vocabulary and ability to draw
conclusions and make inferences based upon the printed page our democracy cannot
function as it should. Nevertheless as visu al images are such a powerful means of
communication and m otivating factor in today’s world we need t o find ways to
incorporate material other than words on the page.
Boss Tweed certainly k new the po wer of the visual in the ni neteenth century when
he said that he di d not care what th e newspapers said about him because hi s
constituents couldn’t read, but oh, those cartoons were killing him!--hence the need
to provide a wide v
ariety of materials. Both written text as well as ma
terials
designed to appeal to the ot her sources of sensory input to the brain are essential t o
reach the diverse learning styles of students.
When I had an opportuni ty to teach a Soci al Studies Methods class at Waynesb urg
University in the spring of 2008 and was approached to incorporate The Library of
Congress Teaching with Primary Sources (TPS) Program into my course I was
delighted to participate, recalling my experience of many years ago at Langley High
School. I decided to incorporate the T
PS material into the development of a
curriculum guide entitled: The Social History of the United States: Melting Pot or
Salad Bowl. The six students in the class each took a ti me period in US History and
developed five lessons using materials from the Li brary of Congr ess within their
chosen time period.
Let us look at two examples from the
lessons developed by my students of the
kinds of materials teachers ca n use from
the
TPS
Program to di
fferentiate
instruction. The first example is from the
Civil War era using music. The students
will listen to several recordings of AfricanAmerican music of this time period and
compare and contrast with music of today.
Just because my face ain't white. Chattaway,
Thurland, 1872-1947.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.award/rpbaasm.0237
Music
is
a
powerful
way
to
engage
students, particularly those who are not
good readers. Additionally, this is a way to reach auditory learners and show that the
teacher understands that each student is unique and is w illing and able t o ensure
that their individual learning needs will be met. This will pay dividends by motivating
students as they see t he teacher can fi nd ways to reach those w ho think school is
not “cool”. Our goal as teachers is to engage students in as many ways as possible
to facilitate achievement.
The second example d eals with the time period
of the rise of industr
ial development of the
United States between the Civil War and World
War I. T his lesson d eals with the Pittsb urgh
Survey on the social a nd economic conditions
in the ci ty at the begi nning of the twe ntieth
century. The students are to receive a packet
of photos of the daily lives
of immigrant
workers. They are to wo rk in pairs answering a
series of questions de veloped by the teac her.
This is a good opport unity to either pair a h igh
and low achiever so that the
high achiever
might motivate the l ow achiever or pai r low
achievers together to not al
Coal breaker boys. Detroit Publishing
Company Photograph Collection
[between 1890 and 1910]
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/det.4a16385
low the hi gher
achiever to dominate the process. Here we are using the visual to motivate the poor
readers or those who are best able to learn via visual rather than verbal means--just
as in the previous example from my early years of teaching.
The use of primary s ources via the TPS Program demonstrates great prom ise for
differentiating instruction to reach a w ide variety of learning styles and ability levels
among learners. Since our st udents are co ming to school from so many
backgrounds and experiential
varied
levels differentiation is of utmost importance.
Incorporating primary source materials
in a variety
of formats provides the
opportunity for each student to develop all their learning modalities as they engage
in historical investigation.
The complete project, The Social History of the United States: Melting Pot or Salad Bowl? is
available online at https://tps.waynesburg.edu/resources#5